Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service 2023-2025 BACKUP HTML VERSION

In 2023 we conducted an inspection of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). We inspected how well the FRS performed in several areas. Each of the areas were then graded as outstanding, good, adequate, requires improvement, or inadequate.

The report areas cover the operational service provided to the public, the efficiency of the service (including value for money), and how well the service looks after, trains, and develops its people, and how well it promotes its values and culture, ensures fairness and diversity for the workforce.

Find out more about how we inspect fire and rescue services.

Overall summary

Our judgments

Our inspection assessed how well Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has performed in 11 areas. We have made the following graded judgments:

In the rest of the report, we set out our detailed findings about the areas in which the service has performed well and where it should improve.

Changes to this round of inspection

We last inspected Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service in February 2021. And in December 2021, we published our inspection report with our findings on the service’s effectiveness and efficiency and how well it looks after its people.

This inspection contains our third assessment of the service’s effectiveness and efficiency, and how well it looks after its people. We have measured the service against the same 11 areas and given a grade for each.

We haven’t given separate grades for effectiveness, efficiency and people as we did previously. This is to encourage the service to consider our inspection findings as a whole and not focus on just one area.

We now assess services against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement. We have also expanded our previous four-tier system of graded judgments to five. As a result, we can state more precisely where we consider improvement is needed and highlight good performance more effectively. However, these changes mean it isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between grades awarded in this round of fire and rescue service inspections with those from previous years.

A reduction in grade, particularly from good to adequate, doesn’t necessarily mean there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so in the report.

This report sets out our inspection findings for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Read more about how we assess fire and rescue services and our graded judgments.

HMI summary

It was a pleasure to visit Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service, and I am grateful for the positive and constructive way in which the service engaged with our inspection staff. I am pleased with the performance of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service in keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks, but it needs to improve in some areas to provide a consistently good service. For example, improvements could be made by diversifying its pool of future and current leaders, consistently managing and developing talent and making sure promotion processes are open, transparent and fair.

We have judged the service to be outstanding in one area and good in others. There are many positives to report.

There have been improvements since our last inspection. These are most notable in how the service uses its resources to manage risk and secure an affordable way of managing the risk of fire and other risks both now and in the future.

My principal findings from our assessments of the service over the past year are as follows:

• The service is outstanding at making best use of its resources. It has comprehensive financial and resourcing plans aligned with strategic priorities and its sustainability strategy that are achieving value for money for the public.
• The service is good at making sure it is affordable now and will be in the future. Its medium-term financial strategy is clearly linked to its integrated risk management plan (IRMP). It has developed good financial business continuity and efficiency plans to make sure that it can respond to changes in the financial climate.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion are clear priorities for the service. They are at the centre of its approach to managing people. The service is a menopause and neurodiversity-friendly employer.
• The service has a positive working culture and staff feel valued and listened to. The behaviours it expects and the values it promotes are understood and shown by all.
• The service needs to make sure on-call staff are familiar with the high-risk sites in their local areas, including understanding fires in tall buildings, so they are better prepared to fight fires and carry out rescues safely.
• The service should make sure it has an effective method for sharing fire survival guidance information when there is a high volume of calls. It should also make sure there is a dedicated communication link between the senior officer in the control room and the incident commander in place.
• The service needs to do more to make sure staff see promotional processes as open, transparent and fair and that the processes to manage and develop talent are applied consistently. It needs to put in place effective systems with the aim of diversifying the pool of future and current leaders.

Overall, I commend the service on the changes it has made and expect it to continue working to resolve the further areas for improvement we have identified.

Roy Wilsher

HM Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services

Service in numbers

 

 

 

 

 

Percentage of firefighters, workforce and population who are female as at 31 March 2022

Percentage of firefighters, workforce and population who are from ethnic minority backgrounds as at 31 March 2022

 

References to ethnic minorities in this report include people from White minority backgrounds but exclude people from Irish minority backgrounds. This is due to current data collection practices for national data.  For more information on data and analysis throughout this report, please view the ‘About the data’ section of our website.

Understanding the risks and other emergencies

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at understanding risk.

Each fire and rescue service should identify and assess all foreseeable fire and rescue-related risks that could affect its communities. It should use its protection and response capabilities to prevent or mitigate these risks for the public.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service has improved how it engages with seldom-heard communities

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should improve how it engages with its local community to build a comprehensive profile of risk in its service area. There has been good progress in this area.

The service has assessed a suitable range of risks and threats using a thorough integrated risk management planning process. In its assessment of risk, it uses information it has collected from a broad range of internal and external sources, including incident and social datasets. For example, the service uses information, reports, the incident reporting system, ward-profiling demographics (such as ethnicity) and housing (such as listed buildings, thatched properties, blocks of flats and living in poverty). It then analyses incident data from its mobilisation system.

The service has also improved how it engages with its local community, including seldom-heard groups. When appropriate, it has consulted and had constructive conversations with its communities and other relevant parties to understand risk and explain how it intends to mitigate it.

For example, the service has a community engagement forum where it consults on and receives feedback on current and up-and-coming changes. More than 200 people have signed up for the forum. The service also reaches more than 80,000 residents through the social networking app Nextdoor, and it works with organisations such as county and district councils to reach seldom-heard communities.

The service has an effective IRMP

Once it has assessed risks, the service records its findings in an easily understood IRMP. This plan describes how the service intends to use its prevention, protection and response activities to mitigate or reduce the risks and threats the community faces both now and in the future.

The plan sets out the service’s objectives and strategic aims under four action plans, titled:

1. people
2. community safety excellence
3. operational excellence
4. value for money.

In these action plans, the service has identified specific areas of focus. These areas include:

• organisational culture and staff communication;
• improving and supporting mental health and staff well-being;
• collaborating with other emergency services; and
• partnership working.

The service makes its annual reports and statements of assurance available to the public.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority monitors the service’s performance and progress. It measures these against the priorities outlined in the service’s IRMP.

The service needs to review its processes for updating risk information

The service routinely collects and updates the information it has about the highest-risk people, places and threats. Operational staff routinely gather risk information from businesses, and staff who are qualified in fire protection inspect and audit premises for fire safety compliance.

We sampled a broad range of the risk information the service collects, including information from safe and well visits (SAWVs), site-specific risk information, temporary risk and protection files. Vulnerable person and premises information is collected and recorded on a central database, called the community fire risk management information system. But we found that the service didn’t always update the site-specific risk information in this system as quickly as it should.

This information is available for the service’s prevention, protection and response staff so that these teams can identify, reduce and mitigate risk effectively. For example, risk information is made available to operational staff via mobile data terminals and tablets.

The service has systems in place to make staff aware of any important changes to risk information. We saw it communicate new and emerging risks via email, service action notes and mobile data terminals and tablets that are updated by the service’s county risk analysis group.

Where appropriate, the service shares risk information with other organisations, such as the Care Quality Commission and local authority housing.

Staff at the locations we visited, including firefighters and control room staff, showed us that they could access, use and share risk information quickly to help them resolve incidents safely.

The service learns from operational activity

The service recorded and communicated risk information effectively. It also routinely updates risk assessments and uses feedback from local and national operational activities to inform its planning assumptions.

The service has dedicated staff for the internal communication of national operational guidance and lessons learned from national operational work. The service’s county risk analysis group reviews emerging information gathered from the service’s operational activity and changes its approach to risks where needed.

Preventing fires and risks

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at preventing fires and other risks.

Fire and rescue services must promote fire safety, including giving fire safety advice. To identify people at greatest risk from fire, services should work closely with other organisations in the public and voluntary sectors, and with the police and ambulance services. They should share intelligence and risk information with these other organisations when they identify vulnerability or exploitation.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service’s prevention strategy clearly links to the risks identified in its IRMP

The service’s prevention strategy is clearly linked to the risks it has identified in its IRMP. The service has identified people who may be vulnerable and at higher risk from fire and road traffic collisions.

The service’s teams work well together and with other relevant organisations on prevention, and they share relevant information when needed. We were pleased to see information is used to adjust planning assumptions and direct activity between the service’s prevention, protection, response and risk functions.

The service has community safety staff dedicated to water safety, road safety and reducing arson. It has dedicated staff working in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough multi-agency safeguarding hubs. This makes sure it can make the correct referrals to the right agencies and support those people most vulnerable to fire and other risks.

All functions in the service use prevention information provided by the prevention team to plan and direct activity, both within their departments and across the organisation. Such activities include Firebreak, which is an intervention programme that gives young people improved knowledge in areas such as basic firefighting skills, basic life support and active citizenship. Each attendee receives a certificate when they complete the programme.

The service uses a broad range of data and information to target its prevention activity. It uses a risk-based approach to clearly prioritise its prevention activity towards people most at risk from fire and other emergencies.

It uses a broad range of information and data to target its prevention activity at vulnerable individuals and groups. This includes health data from the Care Quality Commission, adult social care, the NHS and Anglian Water.

The service carries out SAWVs. The service assesses whether a person needs a SAWV by using eligibility criteria, such as age, smoking habits, mental health conditions and any vulnerabilities the person may have. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, the service carried out 4,607 SAWVs, and partner agencies, such as social work organisations, carried out 465 home fire safety visits.

The service has developed good relations with a range of partner organisations in the health and care sector. These partners refer individuals who would benefit from a SAWV to the fire and rescue service.

Staff are confident at carrying out SAWVs

Staff told us they have the right skills and confidence to make SAWVs. The visits cover an appropriate range of hazards that can put vulnerable people at greater risk from fire and other emergencies. For example, a community safety officer or firefighter will check and give advice on:

• fire safety in the home;
• smoking;
• keeping warm in the home;
• how to prevent falls; and
• crime prevention and scams.

The service is good at responding to safeguarding concerns

In our previous inspection, we found there were staff who hadn’t received safeguarding training. Recognising safeguarding issues and vulnerability will improve the service that Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service provides to the public. There has been good progress in this area.

The service has now made safeguarding training mandatory. It has arrangements for staff to raise any safeguarding concerns with the multi-agency safeguarding hubs. The staff we interviewed told us about occasions when they have identified safeguarding problems. They told us they feel confident and trained to act appropriately and promptly. We found that staff regularly recognised vulnerabilities and risks during SAWVs and acted appropriately to improve people’s safety. This included escalating matters to a more qualified person and making referrals to partner agencies.

The service works well with other organisations to reduce the number of fires and other risks

The service works with a wide range of other organisations to prevent fires and other emergencies. These organisations include adult and children’s social care services, local housing providers, healthcare organisations and charities. We found good evidence that the service routinely referred people at greatest risk to these and other organisations that may be better able to meet their needs.

Arrangements are also in place to receive referrals from others, such as the NHS, other social care providers and water companies. And the service acts appropriately on the referrals it receives to provide a SAWV.

The service routinely exchanges information with other public sector organisations about people and groups at greatest risk. It uses this information to challenge planning assumptions and target prevention activity. For example, it is an important partner in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Business Partnership, focusing specifically on reducing injury and deaths among younger drivers.

When appropriate, the service shares information with other organisations about vulnerability, hoarding and scams. It does this through the county community data sharing agreement. It is also a statutory partner in supporting Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s commitment to combat organised crime and modern slavery.

The service has effective interventions to tackle fire-setting behaviour

The service has a range of suitable and effective interventions to target and educate people with different needs who show signs of fire-setting behaviour. This includes a fire-setter intervention programme, which involves fire and rescue service staff visiting children who play with or have a fascination with fire. It also shares relevant information and works in partnership with authorities to tackle fire-setting behaviour and carry out early intervention.

When appropriate, it routinely shares information with relevant organisations to support the prosecution of arsonists. For example, the service is a statutory partner in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough community safety partnerships such as the county-wide high harm board and the serious organised crime and organised crime group multi-agency mapping panel.

The service has effective processes to evaluate prevention activities

The service has good evaluation processes in place to measure how effective its activity is and to make sure all sections of its communities get appropriate access to prevention services that meet their needs. It is working with Manchester University to continue to develop more effective evaluation tools for its prevention activities.

Prevention activities take account of feedback from the public, other organisations and other parts of the service. For example, people who have received SAWVs are revisited and assessed again both 30 days and 10 months after the initial visit. This is so the service can assess when people’s behaviours and habits change.

The service uses feedback to inform its planning assumptions and changes future activity to make sure it focuses on what the community needs and what works.

Protecting the public

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at protecting the public through fire regulation.

All fire and rescue services should assess fire risks in certain buildings and, when necessary, require building owners to comply with fire safety legislation. Each service decides how many assessments it does each year. But it must have a locally determined, risk-based inspection programme for enforcing the legislation.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

Protection is clearly linked to the IRMP

The service’s protection strategy is clearly linked to the risks it has identified in its IRMP. The fire safety enforcement strategy and the risk-based inspection programme are informed by local risk.

The service uses a range of information from its risk-based audit programme, risk modelling, ward profiling and workforce planning to inform its IRMP and action plans. It uses this information to adjust planning assumptions and direct activity between its protection, prevention and response functions. This means resources are properly aligned with risk.

The service aligns protection activity with risk

Since our last inspection, the service has reviewed its risk-based inspection programme, which is focused on the service’s highest-risk buildings. It uses a variety of methods to identify and categorise risk, such as carrying out fire-risk profiling using localised risk data supported by external agency information. Protection staff we spoke to had a clear and consistent understanding of the service’s highest-risk premises.

As of 31 March 2022, the service had identified 523 premises as high risk, such as buildings with sleeping accommodation. The service is on track to inspect these premises by 2024. This is in line with its risk-based inspection programme, which states specialist fire safety staff will inspect these premises over a two-year cycle.

The audits we reviewed had been completed in the time frames the service has set itself. In the year ending 31 March 2022, the service had completed 265 high-risk audits. The completion of these audits, and the changes that should be made to the premises as a result, should make the buildings safer for the people who use them.

The quality of fire safety audits is good

We reviewed a range of audits that the service had carried out at different buildings across its area. These included audits carried out:

• as part of the service’s interim risk-based inspection programme;
• after fires at premises where fire safety legislation applies;
• after enforcement action had been taken; or
• at high-rise, high-risk buildings.

The audits we reviewed were completed to a high standard in a consistent, systematic way and in line with the service’s policies. The service makes relevant information from its audits available to operational teams and control room operators.

The service is consistently quality assuring its fire protection audits

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should make sure it has an effective quality assurance process so that staff carry out audits to an appropriate standard. There has been good progress in this area.

Previously we found the service had quality assurance processes in place, but they weren’t consistently applied. The service wasn’t quality assuring its audits unless enforcement action was being taken.

During this inspection, we were pleased to find that the service carries out proportionate quality assurance of all of its fire protection audit activity.

It has good evaluation tools in place to measure how effective its activity is and to make sure all sections of its communities get appropriate access to the protection services that meet their needs.

Enforcement activities are proportionate to risk

In our previous inspection, we found the service hadn’t used its full range of enforcement powers. It wasn’t always clear if the service was willing to prosecute those who don’t comply with fire safety regulations.

During this inspection, we were pleased to find that the service uses enforcement powers in a proportionate way and when appropriate and will prosecute those who don’t comply with fire safety regulations. The service enforcement policy statement is aligned with the Regulators’ Code, which makes sure enforcement actions are proportionate. The service has access to a fire safety specialist barrister for complex cases. Low levels of formal action are balanced with good levels of informal action that effectively change the behaviour of offenders.

In the year ending 31 March 2022, the service issued no alteration notices, 100 informal notifications and no enforcement notices. It undertook one prohibition notice. In the five years from 2018 to 2023, it completed no prosecutions.

The service has allocated enough resources to protection

The service has enough qualified protection staff to meet the requirements of its risk‑based inspection programme. It has trained wholetime firefighters to support the risk-based inspection programme and carry out compliance checks at lower-risk, less‑complex premises. This helps it provide the range of audit and enforcement activity needed, both now and in the future.

Staff get the right training and work to appropriate accreditation.

The service is adaptable to new legislation

Since our last inspection, the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety Regulations 2022 have been introduced to bring about better regulation and management of tall buildings.

The service supports the introduction of the Building Safety Regulator. It doesn’t expect these arrangements to have a significant effect on its other protection activity or to draw on any building regulator funding due to the low number of high-rise premises in its area.

The Fire Safety Regulations 2022 introduced a range of duties for the managers of tall buildings. These include a requirement to give the fire and rescue service floor plans and inform them of any substantial faults to essential firefighting equipment, such as firefighting lifts.

We found that the service had good arrangements in place to receive this information. When it doesn’t receive the right information, it takes action. And it accordingly updates the risk information it gives its operational staff.

The service works well with other enforcement agencies

The service works closely with other enforcement agencies to regulate fire safety, and it routinely exchanges risk information with them. For example:

• The service is an active member of local safety advisory groups, with which it shares risk information and intelligence.
• It participates in joint enforcement work with housing and licensing agencies as well as the police force.

The service should review arrangements to respond to building and licensing consultations

The service doesn’t always complete building consultations within the allocated time period. This means it doesn’t consistently meet its statutory responsibility to comment on fire safety arrangements at new and altered buildings.

All services should aim to have 100 percent of their building and licensing consultations completed in the required time frame. In the year ending 31 March 2022, the service had responded to 95.6 percent of building regulation consultations and 96.7 percent of licensing consultations in the required time frame. We were told this was due to delays in external parties providing full details on request or because it was waiting for responses.

The service should review its arrangements and make every effort to meet the time frames in which feedback should be given to local authority building control to make sure it can be acted upon.

The service could do more to work with local businesses and other organisations

The service could do more to work with local businesses and other organisations to promote compliance with fire safety legislation. The service is an active partner in the primary authority scheme, which is a way for businesses to get assured compliance advice and guidance. But in this inspection, we found the service carried out limited work directly with businesses and held very few business seminars. Instead, the service relies mainly on its website to give businesses information about fire safety regulations, enforcement and prosecution.

The service has implemented a good unwanted fire signals policy

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should make sure that it effectively addresses the burden of false alarms.

In the year ending 31 March 2022, 31 percent of emergency calls received (4,249) were automatic fire alarms, which is the third highest rate for any service in England. This is an increase of 21 percent in automatic fire alarm calls, from 3,524 in the year ending 31 March 2021. Not all automatic fire alarms need to be attended by fire and rescue services, as they aren’t always initiated by genuine emergencies. Despite this increase in calls, the proportion the service didn’t attend remained fairly consistent with the previous year at 33.3 percent. Although this figure is slightly lower than the England rate of 36 percent of automatic fire alarm calls not attended.

In this inspection, we found that on 1 May 2023, the service had introduced a good unwanted fire signal policy that mirrors the National Fire Chiefs Council’s guidance on call filtering. The service will get fewer unwanted calls because of this. This means fire engines are available to respond to genuine incidents rather than responding to false ones. It also reduces the risk to the public, as fewer fire engines are travelling at high speed on the roads to respond to these incidents.

The service has plans to improve the resilience of its all-hours fire safety cover

In this inspection, we found the service’s arrangements for providing specialist protection advice to businesses and operational crews out of hours weren’t guaranteed.

However, it was encouraging to see that the service is training more staff to give technical support at all hours of the day and night and that it always responds. The service should make sure these arrangements are resilient.

Responding to fires and other emergencies

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is adequate at responding to fires and other emergencies.

Fire and rescue services must be able to respond to a range of incidents such as fires, road traffic collisions and other emergencies in their areas.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service is good at using performance data to improve response standards and availability

The service’s response strategy is linked to the risks it has identified in its IRMP. Its fire engines and response staff, as well as its working patterns, are designed and located to help the service respond flexibly to fires and other emergencies with the appropriate resources.

The service’s operational response reviews have identified changes that should improve its response and availability. For example, it has moved to a response model that uses two day-crewed fire engines and two roaming fire engines to cover on-call areas when the on-call fire engine isn’t available.

The service prioritises covering its on-call strategic stations to improve its response standard. It uses on-call capacity to cover other stations and carry out prevention and protection activities.

The service has plans to improve its response times

There are no national response standards of performance for the public. But the service has set out its own response standards.

According to these standards, the first fire engine should arrive at the most serious incidents within an average of nine minutes in urban areas. The service consistently meets this standard. In rural areas, the first fire engine should attend within an average of 12 minutes. The service doesn’t always meet this standard. The service told us that in the year ending 31 March 2022, its average response time to the most serious incidents in urban areas was 7 minutes and 36 seconds. This meets its standard. In the year ending 31 March 2022, its average response time to the most serious incidents in rural areas was 12 minutes and 14 seconds.

The service is undertaking an operational response review, aligned with the development of its new community risk management plan (which will replace its IRMP). The review will examine the appropriateness of the service’s standards and how to improve response times.

The service is good at reviewing availability

To support its response strategy, the service aims to have:

• 100 percent of wholetime fire engines available on 100 percent of occasions; and
• nine on-call fire engines, including two roaming fire engines, available from 8am to 6pm.

It consistently meets the wholetime standard, but on-call availability has been declining. In the year ending 31 March 2022, wholetime fire engine availability was 100 percent, and on-call fire engine availability was 58 percent. But in January 2023, the service changed its on-call crewing model. This has resulted in an increase in on‑call crewing availability of 200 hours a week. We are interested to see how this model develops.

Staff have a good understanding of how to command incidents safely

The service has trained incident commanders, who are assessed regularly and properly. It has an effective system to make sure that they have regular level 2, level 3 and level 4 incident command training. It uses an externally accredited training provider to assess commanders’ command competence every two years. On 31 March 2022, all 221 incident commanders were appropriately accredited. This helps the service safely, assertively and effectively manage the whole range of incidents it could face, from small and routine ones to complex multi-agency incidents.

As part of our inspection, we interviewed incident commanders from across the service. They were familiar with risk assessing, decision-making and recording information at incidents in line with national best practice, as well as the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP). They are also confident in the use of operational discretion: they know when to use their professional judgment in an unforeseen situation at an incident and that the service will support their decisions.

The service makes sure fire control staff are involved in training, exercise, debrief and assurance activity

The service has a combined fire control with Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service. One fire control, based in Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service’s headquarters in Huntingdon, handles all 999 calls for both services.

We were pleased to see the service’s control staff integrated into its training, exercise, debrief and assurance activity. There are processes for staff working in fire control to carry out a debrief following incidents involving six fire engines or after incidents of interest. We found that control staff were invited to the service’s structured (formal) debrief following a critical incident.

More needs to be done to update risk information promptly

We sampled a range of risk information, including:

• records on the service’s community fire risk information management system; and
• site-specific risk information records on the fire engines’ mobile data terminals.

The records included the information in place for firefighters responding to incidents at high-risk, high-rise buildings and the information held by fire control.

Staff could easily access and understand this information. Encouragingly, it had been completed with support from the service’s prevention, protection and response functions when appropriate.

But the information wasn’t always up to date or detailed. For example, some of the high-rise files we reviewed hadn’t been updated onto the mobile data terminals promptly enough, and not all high-rise premises had operational tactical plans. We found that not all on-call staff got involved in collecting risk information or carry out risk familiarisation visits. This is an area for improvement.

The service has good processes to evaluate operational performance and national operational guidance

As part of the inspection, we reviewed a range of emergency incidents and training events including:

• wildfires;
• domestic fires;
• critical incidents; and
• operational discretion incidents and exercises.

We found that the service had an effective system for staff to use information from learning and debriefing activity to improve operational response and incident command. It has a comprehensive incident monitoring and debriefing policy. We found that staff had good knowledge and understanding of these.

We saw the service use its range of debriefing processes, but it doesn’t always have formal structured debriefs for incidents or events highlighted in its policies.

The service updates internal risk information as it receives it. Learning from exercises and incidents is fed into an operational support group that collates and communicates it to all staff through what the service calls ‘closing the loop’ reports. The group uses service action notes, safety flashes and emails to inform all staff about the reports and any other learning.

The service has responded to learning from incidents to improve its service to the public. Staff are confident that it listens to their feedback and takes action as a result of learning from operational incidents. For example, the service initiated and held a formal debrief following our inspectors’ reality testing of its ability to effectively manage multiple fire survival calls.

But we found that the service was missing opportunities to collect operational learning from incidents where operational discretion (the use of professional judgment to make decisions on incidents that are extremely unusual and not reasonably foreseeable or a combination of circumstances that haven’t been predicted) was used.

The service is contributing to and acting on learning from other fire and rescue services or operational learning gathered from other emergency service partners. For example, it uses safety flashes or reviews of practices to improve from the National Fire Chiefs Council’s Central Programme Office and JESIP.

The service has an active role in the regional national operation guidance group. It has fully adopted national operational guidance.

The service keeps the public informed about ongoing incidents effectively

The service has good systems in place to inform members of the public about ongoing incidents and help keep them safe during and after incidents. This includes:

• the proactive use of social media, particularly Twitter, Facebook and Nextdoor;
• the incident tab on the service’s website;
• media-trained incident commanders; and
• a media and communication team available at all hours, to support warning and informing.

We saw evidence that the service gives incident updates using these systems.

Responding to major and multi-agency incidents

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is adequate at responding to major and multi‑agency incidents.

All fire and rescue services must be able to respond effectively to multi-agency and cross-border incidents. This means working with other fire and rescue services (known as intraoperability) and emergency services (known as interoperability).

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service is prepared for major and multi-agency incidents

The service has effectively anticipated and considered the reasonably foreseeable risks and threats it may face. These risks are listed in both local and national risk registers as part of its integrated risk management planning. The service is an active member of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough local resilience forum (CPLRF) and hosts the CPLRF community risk register on its website. It highlights the top ten risks to homes, businesses and the community and details the steps that can be taken to be better prepared for them. These risks include, among others:

• emerging infectious diseases;
• total failure of the electricity transmission network;
• cold and snow;
• major contamination of the food chain; and
• flooding.

The service’s approach to a total failure of the electricity transmission network has been tested through Larch, a training exercise that tested local tactical plans.

The service is familiar with the risks that neighbouring fire and rescue services could face and which it might reasonably be asked to respond to in an emergency. These include control of major accident hazard incidents and flooding on the east coast.

The service should make sure the electronic method of handling multiple fire survival guidance calls is effective

In our last inspection, we focused on how the service had collected risk information and responded to the Government’s building risk review programme for tall buildings.

In this inspection, we have focused on how well prepared the service is to actually respond to a major incident at a tall building, such as the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

At this type of incident, a fire and rescue service would receive a high volume of simultaneous fire calls. During this inspection, we tested the service’s systems for sharing fire survival guidance information and reviewed how the fire control room directly communicates with the incident commander.

The service has carried out realistic training and exercising at tall buildings. But this didn’t include testing an electronic method of sharing information about multiple fire survival guidance between the incident command unit, the bridgehead and the fire control room. This is because the service didn’t have an electronic method of sharing information. It also didn’t have an effective dedicated communication link between the fire control room and the incident commander. These are Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations.

We found that the service’s systems weren’t robust enough. The service relied too heavily on paper-based systems. These systems were too open to operator error. They also meant that staff in the emergency control room, at the incident and in assisting control rooms couldn’t share, view and update actions in real time. This could compromise the service’s ability to safely resolve a major incident at a tall building.

But the service held a formal debrief following our test of its capability to effectively manage multiple fire survival calls. And, during this inspection, the service implemented an electronic method of sharing information about fire survival guidance between fire control, the incident command unit and the bridgehead. It also put in place processes to make sure there is a dedicated communication link between the senior officer in the control room and the incident commander.

At the time of this report, the service was testing its electronic solution at all high-rise premises in its community. This is an area for improvement, and we are interested to see if these changes are effective.

The service works well with other fire and rescue services

The service supports other fire and rescue services responding to emergency incidents. For example, it shares a principal officer rota with Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. It is intraoperable with these services and can form part of a multi‑agency response.

The service has specialist, national inter-agency liaison officers who provide cover at all hours of the day and night to support its marauding terrorist attack response. It maintains and staffs a high-volume pump that is also available to the national resilience programme.

The service’s exercising, including cross-border, is good

The service has a cross-border exercise plan with neighbouring fire and rescue services, helping them work together effectively to keep the public safe. The plan includes the risks of major events at which the service could foreseeably give support or ask for help from neighbouring services. The service participated in the recent power outage exercises Mighty Oak, which simulated a national power outage, and Larch, which tested local tactical plans. We were encouraged to see that the service uses feedback from these exercises to inform risk information and service plans.

Data given to us by the service for the inspection shows that the number of exercises with neighbouring fire and rescue services has increased over the last 3 years, from 7 in the year ending 31 March 2019 to 29 in the year ending 31 March 2022.

Incident commanders have a good understanding of JESIP

The incident commanders we interviewed had been trained in and were familiar with JESIP.

The service could give us strong evidence that it consistently follows these principles. This includes:

• staff having knowledge and making use of the joint decision-making model; and
• using messaging (that all emergency services and related agencies understand).

We sampled a range of debriefs the service had carried out after multi-agency incidents or exercises.

We found that the service had an excellent, detailed and clear operational learning, incident monitoring and debriefing policy. Most staff could recall the collecting and sharing of risk information and operational learning through formal or informal debriefs.

The service is an active member and lead partner of the CPLRF

The service has good arrangements in place to respond to emergencies with other Category 1 and 2 responders that make up the CPLRF. These arrangements include having dedicated staff available to respond to requests from partners.

The service is a valued partner. The chief fire officer is the chair of the CPLRF, and staff chair the tactical co-ordinating groups and are trained as loggists (notetakers for formal emergency management meetings). The service takes part in regular training events with other members of the CPLRF and uses the learning to develop planning assumptions about responding to major and multi-agency incidents.

The service keeps up to date with national learning

The service makes sure it knows about national operational updates from other fire and rescue services and joint operational learning from other organisations, such as the police service and ambulance trusts. It uses this learning to inform planning assumptions that it makes with partner organisations.

Making best use of recourses

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is outstanding at making best use of its resources.

Fire and rescue services should manage their resources properly and appropriately, aligning them with their risks and statutory responsibilities. Services should make best possible use of resources to achieve the best results for the public.

The service’s revenue budget for 2023/24 is £33.7m. This is an increase from £31.23m in the previous financial year.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service has effective financial and workforce plans

The service has made significant improvements since our last inspection. Its financial and workforce plans, including allocating resources to prevention, protection and response, are comprehensive, agile and flexible. Plans are consistent with the risks and priorities it has identified in its IRMP.

We were impressed by the way the service now approaches its forecasting and risk and resourcing planning. It has introduced zero-based budgeting (where all expenditure must be justified based on the service’s priorities rather than the previous year’s base budget). It now looks further ahead to anticipate where it might need to change the way it spends, operates or saves.

Over the past ten years, the service has carried out three reviews of service (two comprehensive spending reviews and an operational response review). These involved carrying out a cost benefit and impact analysis of its response cover, evaluating its mix of crewing duty systems and analysing how it deploys its fire engines. The reviews have been effective, resulting in savings while improving operational response and productivity.

For example, the service found that enhancing staff pay by 20 percent didn’t improve the availability of the day-crewed stations’ fire engines. A change of policy means the enhancement is now only paid when availability is likely to be improved.

A recent change to on-call crewing has also increased availability, and the service has returned to a four-watch wholetime duty system. This system supports the two roaming fire engines at strategic on-call stations identified in the service’s IRMP. This has improved how quickly the first fire engine in attendance arrives at the most serious incidents in urban areas.

The service is continuing to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. It is carrying out another operational response review, which supports other work around finance business continuity planning. This review is to:

• make sure the service’s response to all incidents is based on risk;
• identify ways to meet the response standards with reduced budgets;
• identify ways to improve how to meet the changing demands of community safety and operational risk management; and
• identify if the service can better meet the requirements of the strategic objectives of its IRMP’s people action plan and its equality and inclusion commitments.

The service builds its plans on sound scenarios. They help make sure the service is sustainable and underpinned by financial controls that reduce the risk of misusing public money. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority oversees and scrutinises the service’s budget performance to make sure it uses public money appropriately.

The service is good at monitoring performance and making improvements to ways of working

We were pleased to see that the service’s arrangements for managing performance clearly link resource use to its IRMP and its strategic priorities. The service’s people and its community safety, community risk and operational excellence groups evaluate important areas of performance and progress against its IRMP, action plans and strategic priorities. Performance monitoring is available across the service through IRMP performance dashboard software. The service gives the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority quarterly performance reports.

The service makes the most of its wholetime firefighter capacity. For example, firefighters carry out community-based fire prevention activities at times that are convenient for the people the activity is targeting. Prevention and protection activity levels are different for each station depending on the local risk profile. And firefighters on the service’s roaming fire engines carry out prevention and protection activities in the local area of the on-call station they are deployed to.

The service is taking steps to make sure the workforce’s time is as productive as possible. This includes putting in place new ways of working. For example, wholetime firefighters carry out community fire safety and technical fire safety (for businesses) visits, which are managed through an electronic system.

The service has made good use of the Government’s uplift grant money. It has improved efficiency by issuing tablets to protection officers and increasing staff numbers in the protection team. Since our last inspection, it has consulted and introduced more flexible contracts for staff training to improve staff work-life balance. New ways of working adopted during the pandemic continue to make savings from non-pay costs. For example, the service has improved and adapted 11 on-call stations to make better use of the estate and cut down staff travel.

The service’s allocation of resources and its effective use of new ways of working are contributing to lower levels of overtime compared to the England rate. For example, in 2021/22, the service’s pre-arranged overtime per head of workforce was £476, while the England rate was £833.

The service collaborates effectively with others

We were pleased to see that the service meets its statutory duty to collaborate. The service collates details of all its collaborations and monitors, reviews and evaluates the benefits and results. This control makes sure that the service only maintains collaborations where there is a benefit.

The service routinely considers opportunities to collaborate with other emergency responders. For example, in partnership with the East of England Ambulance Service, it provides a first response to specific medical emergencies (called co-responding) where there is an immediate threat to life prior to an ambulance arriving on the scene.

The service provides drones and operators in collaboration with Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire fire and rescue services. With Cambridgeshire Constabulary it has invested in a platform called GoodSam, which helps key commanders to see live footage from drones on the incident ground through a secure link. There are plans to roll this out to all incident commanders and give access to the control room and the incident command unit.

Collaborative work is aligned with the priorities in the service’s IRMP. For example, the service shares its information and communication technology provision with Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. It is also making savings of £28,000 per year through Essex Fire and Rescue Service providing safeguarding oversight and support.

The service has effective continuity arrangements in place

The service has good continuity arrangements in place for areas in which it considers threats and risks to be high. It regularly reviews and tests these threats and risks so that staff know the arrangements and their associated responsibilities.

We found well-tested business continuity, fire control and financial business continuity plans. The service has appropriate business continuity plans in place for industrial action. It has assured itself and can show that it has enough resources available for future periods of industrial action. Resilience arrangements make sure staff would be available to provide cover and maintain critical services.

The service provides training so that staff maintain the skills required for their roles. The degradation plan, which would be followed during industrial action, was activated at times during the pandemic.

The service shows sound financial management and value for money

We were encouraged to see the improvements the service has made since our last inspection. It is in the lower quartile for total expenditure per head of population and firefighter cost per head of population.

There are regular reviews to consider all of the service’s expenditure, including its non-pay costs. And this scrutiny makes sure the service gets value for money. For example, the finance team works closely with budget holders to review and challenge expenditure. The commercial team also reviews contract spending. Where appropriate, contracts are renegotiated. For example, the service saved £50,000 by renegotiating the Tannoy system contract.

The service has made savings and efficiencies that haven’t affected its operational performance and the service it gives the public. For example, the service created a finance business continuity reserve of £1m by deliberately holding back on spending in 2021/22. This was in anticipation of future budgetary pressures.

The service is taking steps to make sure it achieves efficiency gains through sound financial management and best working practices. It is doing this in important areas such as estates, fleet and procurement. Non-pay cost savings have been made by making changes to aspects of premises and their management and bringing some services in-house. Changes include:

• using asbestos oversight services;
• installing more effective insulation;
• using LED lighting;
• regularly replacing boilers; and
• moving to smart meters.

Making FRS affordable

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at making the service affordable now and in the future.

Fire and rescue services should continuously look for ways to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. This includes transforming how they work and improving their value for money. Services should have robust spending plans that reflect future financial challenges and efficiency opportunities, and they should invest in better services for the public.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service understands its future financial challenges

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should make sure it has sufficiently robust plans in place that address the medium-term financial challenges beyond 2024 and secure an affordable way of managing the risk of fire and other risks. It has made good progress in this area.

We were encouraged to see the improvements the service has made since our last inspection. The service’s approach to scenario planning for future spending reductions is now linked to its medium-term financial strategy and its IRMP. It has introduced zero-based budgeting.

Alongside this, the service has carried out a sensitivity analysis, which has helped it to consider the implications of different levels of funding and spending pressures on its financial forecast. The underpinning assumptions are relatively robust, realistic and prudent and take account of the wider external environment.

The service has a sound understanding of future financial challenges. It plans to mitigate its main financial risks. For example, the service has put contingencies in place to cover high rates of inflation. At the time of inspection, the service had a wholetime recruitment reserve of £400,000, which it expected to use to partly fund the higher-than-anticipated firefighter pay award. The service also has a finance business continuity reserve of £1m. It may need to use this reserve if its savings plan isn’t achieved or there are other unforeseen cost or funding pressures.

We were pleased to see that the service has identified savings and investment opportunities to improve its service to the public or generate further savings. The service’s 2023/24 budget includes over £900,000 of identified savings. These savings include:

• cheaper insurance premiums;
• some reduction in operational and support roles;
• improved use of IT; and
• revised ways of working in the community safety team.

The service is carrying out an operational response review to identify more efficient and effective ways of working that may provide savings which can be reinvested. And it has developed a good financial business continuity plan. The plan sets out ways the service could make savings if it faces financial pressures in the future, along with the anticipated risks to and effects on the service.

The service has a clear plan for its reserves

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should have a clear and sustainable strategic plan for the use of its reserves that promotes new ways of working. Our previous inspection found there was a risk that the service’s plans would deplete its reserves too much.

We were encouraged to see the improvements the service has made since our last inspection. The service has a sensible and sustainable plan for using its reserves. It plans to maintain its general reserve at £2.4m. It has earmarked reserves to mitigate financial risks, such as the finance business contingency reserve and the pension reserve.

The service also has a reserve to fund investments in estate and fleet and to support its sustainability strategy. It anticipates the reserve will be replenished through the expected sale of the unused Huntingdon fire station and land at St Ives.

Fleet and estates strategies are linked to the service’s IRMP and financial and sustainability plans

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should make sure that its fleet and estates management programmes are linked to its IRMP and that it understands the effect future changes to those programmes may have on its service to the public. It has made good progress in this area.

The service’s estate and fleet strategies are now linked to its IRMP, sustainability strategy and financial plans. Both strategies exploit opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The estate strategy details an ambitious five-year programme that aims to improve ways of working. It uses a comprehensive asset management tracker to drive capital investment and future forecasting. Works carried out will be in line with the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method. This is industry best practice for efficient construction and energy efficiency management.

The fleet strategy is driven by the strategic aims of the IRMP. For example, the service has started to move towards a fleet of electric pool cars and hybrid response cars. This meets the changing needs of the community by reducing emissions and allowing access to the planned congestion zones in Cambridge. And the service plans to make good use of new technologies by moving from generator-powered to battery-powered road traffic collision tools, in line with its operational excellence aims.

The service regularly reviews these strategies so that it can properly assess the effect any changes in estate and fleet provision or future innovation have on risk.

Since our last inspection, the service has contracted a third-party external company to carry out a condition survey of its estates. The resulting report identified a required net spend of £3.5m spread over five years to improve the estate condition to an acceptable standard for a modern-day fire and rescue service.

The service uses innovation to improve

The service actively considers how changes in technology and future innovation may affect risk. It also seeks to exploit opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness presented by changes in technology.

The service has good digital and IT shared service technical strategies. These set out principles and guidelines for IT that provide better services for the public. For example, the service is investing in security information and event management for tackling cyberattacks and simultaneously addressing regulatory compliance requirements.

The service’s digital strategy fully supports and details collaboration. The service told us it is making sure its technology is safeguarded against any budget reductions.

The service has had a high turnover of professional support staff. This has affected its transformation and efficiency programme process. But the service has achieved the capability it needs to achieve sustainable transformation by reinvesting staff savings. The service routinely seeks opportunities to work with others to improve efficiency and provide better services in the future.

The service has been reviewed by the Carbon Trust and has a good sustainability strategy, a decarbonisation action plan and a heating strategy. It understands its carbon footprint and aims to have a carbon output of net zero by 2030 across the five key areas of property, people, fleet, procurement and offsetting. Its plans include:

• moving away from using diesel vehicles;
• introducing hybrid vehicles and biodiesel fuels;
• replacing boilers;
• updating server rooms; and
• replacing windows.

The service has installed solar panels on its new Huntingdon fire station, and it is considering installing solar panels across the whole estate.

The heating strategy recommends installing air source heat pumps across most sites. It sets out indicative figures for potential carbon, energy and cost savings as well as the capital cost for installation. The decarbonisation action plan details the modelling, costs and carbon savings of switching to electrified heating at Ely, Burwell and Sutton fire stations.

The service’s income generation is limited

The service considers options for generating extra income and has a track record of securing additional funds. But opportunities to exploit options for generating income are limited.

Promoting the right values and culture

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at promoting the right values and culture.

Fire and rescue services should have positive and inclusive cultures, modelled by the behaviours of their senior leaders. Services should promote health and safety effectively, and staff should have access to a range of well‑being support that can be tailored to their individual needs.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service culture, behaviours and values are good

The service has well-defined values, which staff understand. Behaviours that reflect service values are shown at all levels of the service. This was reflected in our staff survey where 93.9 percent (185 out of 197) of respondents stated that service values are consistently modelled and maintained by their colleagues, with 95.9 percent (189 out of 197) stating that line managers modelled and maintained the values.

The service consulted all staff groups, including the inclusion steering group, on the Core Code of Ethics for Fire and Rescue Services in England. Senior leaders and staff told us the service’s one-team behaviours and service values are well understood and align with the Core Code of Ethics.

Senior leaders act as role models. Of the respondents to our survey, 87.3 percent (172 out of 197) stated that service values are constantly modelled and maintained by senior leaders. Staff told us that they feel listened to and that senior leaders are accessible and approachable.

There is a positive working culture throughout the service, with staff feeling empowered and willing to challenge poor behaviours when they come across them. All staff we spoke to were confident to report bullying, harassment and discrimination. In response to our survey, 91.5 percent (184 out of 201) of respondents agreed the service treats its staff fairly at work, and 96.5 percent (194 out of 201) agreed they are treated with respect.

Staff have good access to services that support their mental and physical health

The service continues to have well-understood and effective well-being policies in place, which are available to staff. A significant range of well-being support is available to support both physical and mental health. For example:

• The service has a well-resourced occupational health department that offers health and well-being advice, health screening, medicals and fitness testing (among other things).
• The service provides an effective trauma-focused peer support system. Trained trauma risk management staff are available to support colleagues who have experienced a traumatic or potentially traumatic event.
• All staff have access to an employee assistance programme from an external health provider, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There are good provisions in place to promote staff well-being. These include:

• a dedicated well-being hub on the service’s intranet;
• contributions to private health insurance; and
• signposting to provisions such as Mind, the mental health charity.

All staff we spoke to understood and had confidence in the well-being support processes available. Our survey indicated that 92.5 percent (186 out of 201) of respondents felt the service is effective at making sure their well-being is supported after a workplace incident.

The service also has enhanced its gym facilities across all fire stations following feedback from staff. It has introduced battle boxes, which are chests containing varied gym equipment that allows staff to carry out role-related fitness training. These facilities have been well received by staff.

The service has appropriate health and safety provisions in place

The service continues to have effective and well-understood health and safety policies and procedures in place. These include:

• a service transformation and efficiency process to record and manage reporting and investigations;
• a health and safety committee and chief officer advisory group monitor that reports on remedial actions; and
• health and safety bulletins to keep staff informed.

These policies and procedures are readily available, and the service promotes them effectively to all staff. The assistant chief fire officer provides oversight. The staff survey indicates that:

• 5 percent (188 of 201) of respondents were satisfied that personal safety and welfare are treated seriously at work; and
• 5 percent (186 of 201) of respondents felt that they have been given appropriate and properly-fitting personal protective equipment to make sure they can work safely.

The staff we spoke to had confidence in the health and safety approach the service takes.

The service needs to do more to make sure staff don’t work excessive hours. In this inspection, we found that staff who have secondary employment or dual contracts didn’t always understand their responsibilities and were sometimes failing to adhere to the service policy. The service is drafting policies to address this. We are interested to see how these develop.

Absence management processes are effective

In our previous inspection, we found inconsistencies in the levels of training in absence management and decision-making. Most managers had the knowledge and skills to conduct absence management, but some felt insufficiently trained. The service has made good progress in this area.

We found there were clear processes in place to manage absences for all staff. There is clear guidance for managers, who are confident in using the process. The service manages absences well and in accordance with policy. It has recently made changes to its absence management procedures. We found some staff weren’t aware of these changes, but those who had experienced them felt the procedures were more supportive and less punitive.

Overall, the service saw an increase in staff absences over the 12 months between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, from 21.49 days to 25.13 days lost per person. But data given to us by the service for this recent inspection shows that absence rates for 2023 are decreasing. We are interested to see how this develops.

Getting the right people

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is adequate at getting the right people with the right skills.

Fire and rescue services should have a workforce plan in place that is linked to their CRMPs. It should set out their current and future skills requirements and address capability gaps. This should be supplemented by a culture of continuous improvement, including appropriate learning and development throughout the service.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service understands what skills and capabilities it needs

The service has good workforce planning in place. This makes sure skills and capabilities align with what it needs to effectively carry out its IRMP. Training plans are aligned with workforce planning and the IRMP.

Workforce and succession planning is subject to consistent scrutiny in the form of regular meetings to discuss requirements. It is managed effectively through a resource management board. Progress and the status of staff succession planning are overseen by a development advisory board. Senior leaders provide oversight of the workforce plan at these boards.

As part of its succession planning, the service has developed a ‘talent grid’ for operational staff. This establishes their skills and maps them against the service’s organisational requirements to identify any gaps. The service intends to adopt the same approach for support staff. We are interested to see how this develops.

The service needs to make sure its processes for monitoring and recording its workforce skills and capabilities are effective

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should assure itself that all staff are appropriately trained for their roles. Not enough progress has been made in this area.

Although there is a system in place to review workforce capabilities, it is ineffective and there is a risk that staff may lack important skills for the future. The service monitors staff capability through its training, recording and competence system. But the learning and development team holds records of some non-critical training that is causing confusion.

Most staff we spoke to found the training, recording and competence system difficult to use. We found some managers using spreadsheets to back up the training records of staff they don’t have access to and were told that records are often inaccurate. Following staff feedback, the service has been running work groups to hear concerns and improve staff understanding. But progress has been limited and the issues we found mirror the issues raised by staff.

Most staff told us that they could access the training they need to be effective in their roles. This wasn’t just focused on operational skills. The service’s training plans make sure it can maintain competence and capability effectively. The service complies with the Competency Framework for Fire Safety Regulations and makes sure staff are qualified for their roles.

In our previous inspection, we found inconsistent understanding when we asked staff about mandatory programmes (training and e-learning) and that many staff hadn’t completed equality, diversity and inclusion training or that it was out of date. In this inspection, we found some improvements. For example, the safeguarding e-learning and equality, diversity and inclusion modules are now mandatory and are better understood by staff. But we were disappointed to find that many staff hadn’t completed training, their training was out of date or their records were inaccurate.

This is still an area for improvement.

The service promotes a culture of continuous learning and improvement

The service promotes a culture of continuous improvement throughout the organisation, and it encourages staff to learn, develop and share learning. The operational support group provides oversight of learning. It receives and circulates new information through service action notes and health and safety bulletins. It also provides feedback and outcomes through closing the loop reports.

We were pleased to see that the service has a range of resources in place. These include e-learning modules, coaching, mentoring and shadowing.

Staff are encouraged to be responsible for their own learning and development, and managers are accountable for supporting staff development.

Most staff told us that they can access a range of learning and development resources. Overall, 86.1 percent of staff (173 of 201) who responded to our survey agreed they could access the right learning and development opportunities. This allows them to do their jobs properly.

Ensuring fairness

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at ensuring fairness and promoting diversity.

Creating a more representative workforce gives fire and rescue services huge benefits. These include greater access to talent and different ways of thinking. It also helps them better understand and engage with local communities. Each service should make sure staff throughout the organisation firmly understand and show a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. This includes successfully taking steps to remove inequality and making progress to improve fairness, diversity and inclusion at all levels of the service. It should proactively seek and respond to feedback from staff and make sure any action it takes is meaningful.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service proactively seeks and acts on staff feedback and challenge

The service works with staff on issues and decisions that affect them. This includes methods to build all-staff awareness of fairness and diversity as well as targeted initiatives to identify matters that affect different staff groups. The service regularly requests and gives feedback through externally provided surveys and internal communication systems such as Yammer (a Microsoft tool for connecting across a company), by email and through manager seminars. Of the respondents to our staff survey, 87.1 percent (175 of 201) felt that the service keeps them informed about matters that affect them, and 83.1 percent (167 of 201) felt that change is managed well in the service.

The service provides a ‘truth-teller’ feedback process for managers. This is similar to a 360-feedback session (a method of giving and receiving feedback using anonymous surveys). The service is going to introduce and pilot an intranet hub that staff will be able to use to ask questions anonymously and have them replied to by the senior leadership team.

The chief fire officer regularly visits stations. Staff told us that leaders are approachable and open to ideas. They said they respond quickly to feedback and challenge and act to resolve workforce concerns.

The service gets and seeks feedback from a range of networks and groups to support continuous improvement of equality, diversity and inclusion in the service and to support colleagues. These include the:

• inclusion network;
• neurodiversity working group;
• female operational working group;
• ethnicity working group;
• menopause working group;
• well-being working group; and
• respect champions’ working group.

Staff associations reported that the service engages with them well. For example, the service’s menopause ambassador has set up a national menopause network, and the service has taken action to address matters staff have raised. These include introducing pop-up tents on all fire engines, supporting educational discussions for staff and signposting. Staff have received these actions positively.

There are processes in place to tackle bullying, harassment and discrimination

Staff have a good understanding of what bullying, harassment and discrimination are and their negative effects on colleagues and the organisation. This understanding has been reinforced by senior leaders visiting all stations and teams to raise awareness of the findings of the Independent Cultural Review of London Fire Brigade and our spotlight report Values and culture in fire and rescue services.

In this inspection, 8.5 percent (17 out of 201) of staff who responded to our survey told us they have been subject to bullying or harassment and 6.5 percent (13 out of 201) to discrimination over the past 12 months.

Most staff are confident in the service’s approach to tackling bullying, harassment and discrimination, grievances and disciplinary matters. We were pleased to find that all staff we spoke to on this inspection felt empowered to challenge inappropriate behaviour and that the service would support them. The service has made sure all staff are trained and clear about what to do if they encounter inappropriate behaviour.

More needs to be done to improve disproportionality in recruitment

The service has put considerable effort into developing its recruitment processes so that they are fair and potential applicants can understand them. For example, during the last wholetime recruitment campaign, the service used external assessors from the community as part of the interview panel. This was to reduce unconscious bias and to make sure that the service was acting according to its own values and behaviours. The service has plans to expand this approach to its middle management recruitment campaigns. We are interested to see how this develops.

The service’s recruitment policies are comprehensive and cover opportunities in all roles. It advertises recruitment opportunities both internally and externally and has acted positively to improve diversity. For example, although levels are low, the number of female firefighters has increased from 25 in the year ending 31 March 2020 to 42 in the year ending 31 March 2022. The service has achieved this through improved retention. Its female operational working group actively promotes the service and works with the maternity working group to improve maternity provision. The service’s maternity ambassador, working with the female operational working group, has improved the welfare assets on fire engines by providing pop-up tents and sanitary provisions. The workforce supports this.

Recruitment campaigns at all levels are directed and accessible to under-represented groups. We identified recruitment campaigns advertised via social media platforms, the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Asian Fire Service Association and Women in the Fire Service. But the service isn’t leading change in this area to increase the diversity of its workforce.

The service needs to do more to make sure its recruitment processes are fair and accessible to applicants from a range of backgrounds. The service carries out suitability meetings with people interested in joining on-call units. We were told these meetings involve two managers, who use a questionnaire to discuss the role, responsibility and recruitment process to join the service. But we found inconsistencies in how these meetings were carried out, which meant there was potential for recruitment bias. This is an area for improvement.

As of 31 March 2022, 24.4 percent of the service’s workforce are women, compared to an average of 18.6 percent throughout all fire and rescue services. This is the third highest proportion of women in the workforce of all fire and rescue services in England. But this varies greatly by role. Women made up:

• 9.5 percent of on-call firefighters;
• 7.9 percent of wholetime firefighters;
• 57.7 percent of support staff; and
• 84.1 percent of fire control.

For the whole workforce, as of 31 March 2022, 4.8 percent are from an ethnic minority background compared to 27 percent in the local population. By role, workers from an ethnic minority background made up:

• 4.7 percent of on-call firefighters;
• 2.6 percent of wholetime firefighters;
• 8.4 percent of support staff; and
• 4.5 percent of fire control.

The service needs to do more to increase staff diversity. There has been little progress in improving ethnic diversity.

In 2021/22, 4 percent of new joiners self-declared as being from an ethnic minority background. The proportion of firefighters that are from an ethnic minority background has decreased from 9.8 percent (49 people) in 2020/21 to 3.7 percent (17 people) in 2021/22.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are clear priorities for the service

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should make sure it has robust processes in place to monitor equality impact assessments and review any actions agreed upon as a result. There has been good progress in this area.

The service is a menopause and neurodiversity-friendly employer.

The service has improved its approach to equality, diversity and inclusion. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the centre of its approach to managing people. It makes sure it can offer the right services to its communities and support staff with protected characteristics through its range of staff networks, staff working groups and membership of external networks such as the Asian Fire Service Association, Women in the Fire Service and the employers’ network for equality and inclusion.

The service provides neurodiversity passports for individuals identified as requiring support. These passports mean staff can change working location in the service without having to repeatedly state the reasonable adjustments that need to be made every time they move. The service is promoting a culture where individuals feel comfortable discussing the topic more and asking for help.

The service holds regular online equality, diversion and inclusion drop-in sessions to discuss and inform on topics such as LBGTQ+, dyslexia, neurodiversity and dementia. A menopause café has been created, with people of different genders attending. The café has motivational speakers to inform attendees. Staff feel this approach takes away the taboo and allows for easier conversation about menopause. We found that 98.5 percent (198 out of 201) of respondents to our survey agreed they have access to gender-appropriate workplace facilities.

Since our previous inspection, the service has updated its equality impact assessment framework and improved its equality impact assessment process, which it is sharing nationally. This process has been simplified. It is easy to follow, all protected characteristics are considered, impact is assessed and the positives and negatives are analysed. There is good governance, and the service consults all relevant staff groups for advice or where there is an impact. All actions proposed are assigned to an individual with clear time frames for completion.

Managing performance

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service requires improvement at managing performance and developing leaders.

Fire and rescue services should have robust and meaningful performance management arrangements in place for their staff. All staff should be supported to meet their potential and there should be a focus on developing staff and improving diversity into leadership roles.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service’s management of individual performance has improved

In our previous inspection, one area for improvement was that the service should make sure the performance development review process is being applied consistently for all staff. There has been good progress in this area.

There is a good performance management system in place, which allows the service to effectively develop and assess the individual performance of each staff member. The service has moved from using annual appraisal processes to carrying out regular, ongoing conversations about performance, development and well-being.

In our staff survey, we asked about how often staff had discussions with their line managers. Of those who responded:

• 90 percent said that they have discussions with their line managers about their performance at work at least once a year;
• 88.1 percent said that they discuss their development needs and goals at least once a year;
• 87.1 percent said that they discuss their personal wellbeing and work-related stress at least once a year; and
• 74.6 percent said that the one-to-one discussions that they have with their manager are helping them to achieve their full potential.

We found that the levels and the application of formal personal development reviews and appraisals had improved across most staff groups. Of respondents to our survey, 78.1 percent (157 out of 201) told us that they have had a formal personal development review or appraisal in the past 12 months. This is a slight improvement on the previous inspection survey results of 74.7 percent (216 out of 289).

During this inspection, the service found an error with the report settings of the personal development review system, which was counting staff with multiple roles twice. The service has now rectified this. We are interested to see how this affects the reporting in the future.

Not all staff feel the promotion and progression processes are fair

The service has put considerable effort into developing its promotion and progression processes so that they are fair and all staff can understand them. The promotion and progression policies are comprehensive and cover opportunities in all roles.

The service has succession-planning processes in place, which allow it to manage the career pathways of its staff, including roles needing specialist skills.

But, disappointingly, there continues to be a perception among some staff we spoke to that there is a culture of networking that is influencing the promotional process.

Most middle managers we spoke to felt that the promotional processes aren’t open, transparent and fair. Our survey found 28.9 percent (58 out of 201) of respondents didn’t agree that the promotion process in their service is fair.

We found that records for the area commanders’ promotional process were missing. There were also no records for the external candidates, and the service’s policy wasn’t followed: no members from recruitment were part of the interview panel, so the process lacked independent scrutiny. We couldn’t confirm the process was open, transparent and fair. We found the application of temporary promotions at group commander level was unclear to staff. It can appear that the service is treating people differently.

The service needs to do more to make sure its promotion and progression processes are viewed as open, transparent and fair. This is an area for improvement.

More needs to be done to diversify leadership in the future

The service needs to encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds into middle and senior-level positions. The service knows it needs to go further to increase workforce diversity, especially in middle and senior management.

The service doesn’t have effective systems in place to diversify the pool of future and current leaders. For example, it has considered direct entry recruitment, but we were told the service isn’t introducing this now due to funding and capacity issues.

We also found recruitment diversity data wasn’t consistently recorded. This means opportunities to diversify could be missed. This is an area for improvement.

The service is inconsistent at identifying leadership and high-potential staff

The service has succession-planning processes in place, which allow it to manage high-potential staff into leadership roles.

It has talent management schemes to develop specific staff. These form part of the service’s workforce plan, implemented through its performance and potential framework. The service makes use of a talent grid (where the criteria are assessed by the chief fire officers’ group), personality profiling and performance development reviews to identify high-potential employees. But we found that the talent grid was unclear and lacked transparency. Some staff told us that the talent grid is no longer being used, but others, including senior leaders, say it is. This has resulted in inconsistency, and it undermines staff perception of fairness in the process. This is an area for improvement.

Further information

Download the PDF report

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service 2023-2025

More about Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service

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Our work

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Other services

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Inspection programme and framework

Detailed information about the inspection methodology.

Useful links

Fire and rescue national framework for England 
National Operational Guidance website
National Fire Chiefs Council website